Why Mindset Matters for Restaurant Growth

chef kitchen growth mindset
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Here is how real restaurant growth starts. It starts when you work on becoming the leader your restaurant needs. It starts with you changing your role in your business. Your restaurant growth depends on how you see the world around you and your mindset.

Let’s talk about mindset first. Restaurant growth starts with a growth mindset. The other mindset is a fixed mindset. What’s the difference?

  • A person with a fixed mindset sees challenges as obstacles, as somebody else’s fault. A person with a fixed mindset doesn’t look for alternative solutions, tends to use little energy in searching for answers, doesn’t want to learn new things or make changes in their business. There tends to be an edge of fear and a tendency to blame outside forces or people.
  • A person with a growth mindset sees a challenge and thinks they can learn something to overcome it. A person with a growth mindset looks for solutions, known and unknown. They know it may cost them money and it may cost them time, but nothing stops them because they see nothing but potential.

Adopting a growth mindset changes how you look at the world. Instead of seeing everything as a challenge that stops you dead in your tracks, you see nothing but opportunity. You know you must look for solutions and trust in alternative solutions.

Test your mindset with this idea: you can accept and understand that to be successful in the restaurant business: you can’t do it without managers.

Instead of taking the stance that managers are horrible or that managers haven’t worked out great in the past, you realize that a well-trained and prepared management team can be the ticket that allows you not to be in the restaurant 24/7.

With a growth mindset, you can understand the importance of systems: that there’s a system, a process, a way of doing anything and everything in the restaurant. This includes everything from budgets and creating your plan for success to counting out a drawer the same way every single time as well as something advanced like dollars per labor hour worked.

  • T&S Brass Eversteel Pre-Rinse Units
  • Day & Nite
  • AyrKing Mixstir
  • RATIONAL USA
  • Imperial Dade
  • BelGioioso Burrata
  • Simplot Frozen Avocado
  • McKee Foodservice
  • Red Gold Sacramento
  • RAK Porcelain
  • DAVO Sales Tax
  • Inline Plastics Safe-T-Chef
  • Texas Pete
  • Atosa USA

A growth mindset allows you to understand the importance of accountability, that just because you put these systems in place, just because you have the mindset, if you’re not willing to hold people accountable to your standards, then nothing gets done your way. You don’t look at it as a negative. Instead, you see it as your job to hold your managers accountable (or what I like to call answerable).

You look at it as a positive that if you train what your job is, how to do it, how well it should be done, more importantly, by when, you can hold them answerable, because they know exactly your expectations. A growth mindset allows you to see how you’re the solution to all your challenges, that it’s not somebody else’s problem to solve. If something goes wrong, it’s your challenge to learn. It’s your challenge to become the leader your restaurant needs. This pushes you to learn, become better and change for the betterment of your restaurant business. 

I see this in action on a weekly basis with the members in my 24-week restaurant transformation coaching program. They’re tackling big issues and common restaurant business challenges with personal and professional growth in mind. For these restaurant owners, the sky’s the limit. It’s unbelievable the changes that my members are making during a pandemic, during a labor shortage. The fact of the matter is, when times are good, when times are bad, someone with a growth mindset sees opportunity around every corner. Yes, they suffer from the same challenges as you – high food cost, high labor cost, can’t find enough employees, short-fuse customers and so much more – but they know it is their responsibility to learn how to solve the problems. They understand pointing fingers and placing blame might feel good for a few minutes, but it doesn’t solve the problems.

If you want real restaurant business growth, I encourage you to consider what you don’t know and to start asking questions. Look for help, sources of information, expertise, coaching, mentorship. Change your mindset so you can change your role in the restaurant, become the leader your restaurant needs and get time away from your restaurant to live your life.

  • Texas Pete
  • DAVO Sales Tax
  • Imperial Dade
  • T&S Brass Eversteel Pre-Rinse Units
  • RATIONAL USA
  • Red Gold Sacramento
  • Atosa USA
  • McKee Foodservice
  • BelGioioso Burrata
  • AyrKing Mixstir
  • Day & Nite
  • Simplot Frozen Avocado
  • RAK Porcelain
  • Inline Plastics Safe-T-Chef